Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi wanted to surprise Grandma, so they didn't notify her beforehand. Now, they were faced with the awkward situation which was beyond Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi's expectation.
There was only one room, and there were only one bed and one set of blankets.
"We'll deal with the accommodation situation later tonight," Hao Ren said. He already had a plan for this one-room situation.
"If you need to be in different rooms, I'll ask one of my sons to go back to town so that we can have another empty room," the old grandma said.
"That's not necessary. We'll deal with it later tonight," Hao Ren quickly rejected her suggestion; he didn't want to cause them so much trouble.
Zhao Yanzi quietly turned to Hao Ren as she was worried, but she didn't say anything.
"Now that you are here, let's have lunch first!" Grandma held on to Zhao Yanzi's hand and said brightly.
The people in the countryside had their lunch earlier than city people because they had to do farm work after lunch. Usually, they would have lunch before 11 o'clock.
After the three-hour-drive, they were just in time for lunch.
They wouldn't prepare a lot of dishes in the countryside, and Zhao Yanzi was obviously not used to the light dishes they had. She filled herself up anyways with a little frowny expression.
"This girl is a little more spoiled than Yujia," Grandma thought to herself as she watched Zhao Yanzi eat.
The old grandma's family went to their farms and did manual rice transplanting after lunch. It was just in the busy season for farm work, so her sons came back to help on the weekends. Although the old grandma was quite old, she was experienced. Hao Ren's grandma went into the field as well to help around. She didn't think it was dirty at all. Instead, it brought back a lot of her memories.
Zhao Yanzi found it fun, so she went to help barefooted. She got exhausted after just transplanting less than a dozen rice plants in a few minutes, but Hao Ren finished two to three rows during that time.
Grandma smiled when she saw that they were having lots of fun on the other side of the field, playing and helping each other. Although the rice plants were a little crooked, she could foresee them growing up healthily. Suddenly, she realized the growth in Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi as well.
They worked until two in the afternoon, and everyone took a break. Zhao Yanzi lost interest in it and ran over to the creek to wash her feet. Then, she picked a big stone to sit on while she swayed her delicate legs up and down to air dry them.
The old grandma who was taking a break on the side of the field nudged Hao Ren's grandma with her elbow. "That... That is not your granddaughter-in-law... Is it?"
Grandma smiled quietly as she narrowed her eyes.
"In the afternoon... Let's do something else," Zhao Yanzi walked to Hao Ren on the warm cobblestones and said.
"I told you it's going to be boring here, yet you insisted on coming," Hao Ren said absentmindedly as he wiped the dried mud off his feet.
"I'm here to see Grandma, and you are being mean to me!" Zhao Yanzi felt wronged.
Hao Ren looked at her speechlessly. "Alright, we'll go look around in the afternoon."
"Yes! Yes!" Zhao Yanzi put on her socks and shoes and was cheered up again.
Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi 'escaped' from the field after explaining to Grandma. They went into the village and wandered around.
Actually, there was only so much to see in the countryside, mostly were unpaved roads and housed made of bricks. However, Zhao Yanzi found it interesting whenever she saw chickens, ducks, cats, and dogs in people's yards.
Sometimes chained up black dog would bark at her when she passed by, and she would get scared and hide behind Hao Ren.
Hao Ren thought to himself, "Hey... You are a dragon, but you are scared of a puppy?"
When they passed by a giant warehouse, Zhao Yanzi was curious about what was inside. She got on her tiptoes to look through the window.
When she saw sweet potatoes piled up in little hills inside, she was excited. "Hey! There are sweet potatoes inside!"
Her eyes brightened as if she hadn't eaten in hundreds of years.
Hao Ren sighed lightly, "Ah... I'm not asking you to call me your husband, but at least you should call me by my name..."
He walked over to her and looked inside as well. "So what?"
"Baked sweet potatoes!" Her eyes shot out lights of excitement. There were usually middle-aged man and woman selling baked sweet potatoes in simple metal ovens by her school, and she had always wanted to bake one herself.
Hao Ren took her to the front of the warehouse to see if they could get inside.
To their surprise, the iron gate was not locked at all. They lightly pushed it open and entered. Zhao Yanzi was extremely excited to see hills of sweet potatoes right in front of her. Regardless of the dirtiness of the sweet potatoes, she dashed over like a greedy thief and stuffed two into her pocket and a few more in her arms.
Seeing Hao Ren not moving, she called out, "What are you doing? Come to take some!"
Hao Ren put four or five in his arms reluctantly. He had done something like stealing sweet potatoes when he was little. In fact, he even went into other people's fields to dig them out.
However, he never thought that he would be doing this again as a university student…
Zhao Yanzi couldn't take anymore despite how much she wanted to. She got out of the warehouse reluctantly.
Just when they stepped out, a few farmers with garden hoes passed by and saw them sneaking out. They shouted out, "What are you doing?"
Zhao Yanzi ran away out of panic, and Hao Ren followed her without thinking.
The two of them, a tall guy and a short girl, hastily dashed onto the little road as the sweet potatoes rolled out of their arms. Premier Xia looked down from a low cloud and sweat came out of his forehead. "The princess of East Ocean Dragon Clan is stealing sweet potatoes with her fiancé..." he thought nervously.
Zhao Yanzi and Hao Ren ran out of the village and were relieved when they found that there was no one after them.
They counted the "stolen goods" and realized that most of them were gone. Hao Ren only had a couple in his arms while Zhao Yanzi had two in her pockets. Altogether, there were five of them.
Zhao Yanzi carried the sweet potatoes happily as if they were priceless treasures. Since Hao Ren had lived in the countryside before, he knew that the sweet potatoes didn't worth much. Usually, a farmer was able to harvest more than half a warehouse in one season.
The farmers wouldn't even care if Hao Ren and Zhao Yanzi asked them for a dozen, and that was why the warehouse wasn't even locked.
Hao Ren only ran away with Zhao Yanzi out of panic. But now, Hao Ren only found it funny seeing how thrilled and excited Zhao Yanzi was.
"Let's bake them here!" Zhao Yanzi calmed herself down a little and suggested as she was satisfied with the surroundings.
They were outside the village and surrounded by a few little hills, which was perfect for blocking the wind. Hao Ren picked up some tree branches and created a little hole with his five-elemental sword energies. He put a sweet potato inside and covered it with the branches. Then, he lit it up with the fire-elemental sword energy.
He was only at Kan-level and had only mastered the first level of the Light Splitting Sword Shadow Scroll. The five-elemental sword energies wouldn't be able to harm an enemy. In terms of offensive power, they might not even be better than kitchen knives. However, they worked pretty well at trivial things like this.
Zhao Yanzi carried a stone over to sit beside the fire. She stared at the sweet potato, full of expectation.
"Can it be cooked properly?" she asked.
It was obvious that this was the first time she baked sweet potatoes. Hao Ren found himself a stone to sit on as well and said, "Of course! I've done it a lot when I was little."
"Shouldn't we be putting the sweet potato on top of the fire? Can it be cooked underneath?" Zhao Yanzi was still questioning his words.
"That would burn it. It wouldn't be baking unless it's underneath," Hao Ren explained to her patiently. Zhao Yanzi had no interest in the five-elemental sword energies he just used, yet, she was so curious about baking sweet potatoes.
About 20 minutes later, Hao Ren released some water-elemental sword energies to extinguish the flame. He pocked around the ashes and took out a black sweet potato from underneath.
Zhao Yanzi didn't care about the cleanliness and reached over to grab the sweet potato.
As soon as she had it in her hands, she realized how hot a freshly baked sweet potato was. She immediately started to blow on it and almost couldn't hold it.
Even so, she didn't want to let go of it. She switched it between her hands and revealed her greediness.
When the sweet potato cooled down a little, she couldn't wait to peel it open. The tempting golden color of the inside demonstrated how well done it was.
Zhao Yanzi was probably afraid of Hao Ren stealing it from her, so she bit onto it with both hands holding it. However, the inner part was still a bit hot. She started to blow again as soon as she took a bite.
Hao Ren was speechless when he saw her silly look.
One sweet potato was not enough for her. She pointed at Hao Ren as she ate. "Bake another one! Bake another one!"
Hao Ren shook his head with a smile. He gathered more tree branches and put two sweet potatoes in the hole which was still warm. He kept adding branches into the flame to keep up the temperature.
Zhao Yanzi rubbed her belly in satisfaction after she had finished that sweet potato. She patted Hao Ren's shoulder with her dirty hands. "Let me do it! Let me do it!"
From watching Hao Ren, she thought that baking sweet potato was a piece of cake. So, she decided to try it herself. Hao Ren noticed the two black stains left on the corners of her lips, but he chose not to tell her since she didn't offer him any part of the baked sweet potato.
After adding branches into the flame for 20 minutes, Zhao Yanzi asked Hao Ren to extinguish the fire. He hastily took out the two sweet potatoes from the ashes only to find that they were already burned into coal-like black pieces.
Hao Ren looked at Zhao Yanzi, and she instantly blushed.
She didn't think that the inside would be as burned as the outside. After peeling off the burned layers, there were still some edible parts inside.
"Here! This one's for you!" She passed one to Hao Ren generously this time.
She was eating happily despite the black stains on her hands. Hao Ren smiled as he realized that Zhao Yanzi could be quite cute sometimes.
However, the sweet potato in his hand was basically burned completely. The edible part of it was only as big as his palm.
"Pay attention to your cultivation. Although having fun is important, cultivation is more important. It would be troublesome if you can't defeat Zeng Yitao in the future." Zhao Yanzi patted Hao Ren's shoulder in encouragement after finishing up two sweet potatoes.
That... That sounded like a different version of Hao Ren's encouragement to her regarding her studies...